Who You Know Fresher Than HOV….Glastonbury 08

According to all who were there, Jay-Z’s much talk about set at Glastonbury this past weekend was legendary. 

He opened it all up with a guitar slung around his neck and led the engergized crowd through a merry sing along/fuck you of Oasis’s “Wonderwall”.  Then kicked right into an AC/DC fueled “99 problems”.  All the staples were hit.  You can check our the entire set here. I’ve posted a few highlights below:

**It meshes so well** Heart of the City over U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday”

“Public Service Announcement” This track is always gonna get you jacked. It began with a shot of Barack and was preluded in Part 2 with a Katrina laced versed and a big Fuck Bush.

* Go to 2:55 for a sweet verse over Estelle’s “American Boy” “London Bridges are falling down/ Not bridges but britches when Jigga’s in town” Then he rocks into a verse with Rihanna’s “Umbrella”.

JUST watch the whole thing….goddamn.

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What’s on Barack Obama’s iPod?

Rolling Stone has a short interview with Rolling Stone-endorsed Presidential candidate Barack Obama, checking out his musical tastes and preferences. Describing his tastes as eclectic, his iPod shows tunes from Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Elton John, Earth Wind and Fire, Yo-Yo Ma and Sheryl Crow.

What do you think is on John McCain’s iPod portable record player?

Barack Obama’s playlist(?):

MP3: Bob Dylan-Shelter from the Storm

MP3: Bruce Springsteen-Born to Run

MP3: Earth, Wind, and Fire-Shining Star

MP3: Miles Davis-So What

MP3: Jay-Z-December 4th

MP3: Elton John-Bennie and the Jets

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Killer Karaoke

Whoever thought I’d be linking to Entertainment Weekly on here? Well, they have outdone themselves over at EW and published the 10 “greatest/grating” karaoke songs of all time. Top 10 here, 10 worst after the jump (mp3s throughout; click the titles:

• Pat Benatar–MP3: Hit Me With Your Best Shot
• Backstreet Boys–I Want It That Way
• 4 Non-Blondes–What’s Up
• Green Day–MP3: Basket Case
• Rihanna–Umbrella
• Billy Joel–MP3: Uptown Girl
• Carrie Underwood–Before He Cheats
• Harry Belafonte–Jump in the Line
• O-Town–All or Nothing
• Celine Dion–It’s All Coming Back To Me No

New Kings of Leon Out in September

…but I have a feeling we’ll about it before then. This year’s Glastonbury headliners and Southern rock quartet KoL will release Only by the Night this September. Things seem to have been relatively quiet with the Kings as of late. Their last LP, Because of the Times, has gotten better with each listen and is an impressive addition to their previous two great albums. Hopefully this one will be no different.

MP3: The Runner

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New Girl Talk Record Out. Download Now.

Girl Talk aka Gregg Gillis digitally released his new album a couple of days ago, entitled Feed the Animals. Upon the first couple of listens, I would say that this tops any previous effort by Gillis. He has expanded his musical sampling to include more 70s soul, 90s rap, and contemporary hits. Though nothing will ever top his indelible mix of Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” with Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” this one has some soon-to-be mashup classics.

Download the album from Gillis’ label’s site: Illegal Art

Listen to it straight through, or skip ahead to these tracks: “Set It Off” and “Hands in the Air.” Additionally, if you hear a song that sounds familiar or just want to know every track Girl Talk samples, check out the album’s Wikipedia page

MP3: Smash Your Head

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Live Review: The Loser’s Lounge Tribute To The Kinks @ Joe’s Pub

New York City has an innumerable quantity of aspiring singers, songwriters, and musicians. Ride the subway on any given day in the Big Apple, and every other person sitting across from you likely qualifies as a member of this ever-growing category. If you want to act, got to L.A,; if you want to sing, go to New York. (And if you want to do both, well, just ask Scarlett Johannson or Zooey Deschanel where they call home.) The talents of these musicians range from indescribably awful to spectacularly gifted. The ladies and gentlemen I saw recently all fall into the latter category.

Live Review: Sloan @ Bowery Ballroom

In a world of once-around music acts, the hit-or-dismiss industry all too often ignores those acts that work their asses off to develop small but enthusiastic and growing groups of fans.  The perfect case study is Canadian rock group Sloan. Were these gentlemen not of the more appreciative Canuck brand, they could have easily been devoured by a label-driven music society that has little appreciation for the laboring type.

It is through this style of hard work, however, that what would have been a throw-away bar band in the States got two sold-out shows in one of New York City’s premier venues, the Bowery Ballroom.  An audience says volumes about a band, and from this particular crowd’s response, one could tell this was no random outing for the Lower East side regulars. No, this particular group came to see Sloan rock.

Quick Hit: Girl Talk and DJ Spooky Interviewed on New Hampshire Public Radio

NHPR (Na-purr) interviewed Girl Talk and DJ Spooky today about the culture of music-sampling, remixing, and getting a groove on. The interview comes from a program called “Word of Mouth.” Check out the interview HERE, and visit the Word of Mouth web site HERE.

Word is that Girl Talk’s new album, Feed the Animals, is being released digitally tonight. Check it out.

New Beck Album: Initial Thoughts

Drowned in Sound got a sneak at Beck’s latest: Modern Guilt.  They got to listen to the (short) 33-minute Danger Mouse-produced album and recorded their thoughts on each track. Some of the highlights:

1 ‘Orphans’
Throbbing bass, cheeky skittering hand-clap riddled hip-hop drums and lush Beach Boys backing vocals courtesy of Chan Marshall, better known as Cat Power.

4 ‘Modern Guilt’
The title track kicks the pace back up with a Beatles-y waltz with little digital flecks and squalls rummage their way in amongst the dum-dum-DUM-dum…

6 ‘Walls’
Sounds like a single. Somewhere between the glossy-dirty shuffling of OutKast’s Stankonia and something the Police might’ve done.

8 ‘Soul of A Man’
A riff romp. Imagine a supergroup of The Stones, The Roots and Queens of the Stone Age, kickin’ it like Run DMC never happened.

MP3: Chemtrails (from Modern Guilt)

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Dawn Landes @ The Mercury Lounge

This review is cross-posted at the soon-to-be-launched www.music-news.com USA site.–

Young alt-country vocalist Dawn Landes performed at New York City’s grungey Mercury Lounge this past weekend, filling the small venue with her tangy-not-twangy voice. It is near the beginning of a long tour for the fresh face who has made a name for herself by releasing a single covering “Young Folks,” originally released by Swedish trio Peter, Bjorn, and John.